Five Things You Must Do When Setting Up A Business

Setting up a business, small or large, can be an exciting and exhilarating experience which will hopefully lead to long term success. However, as is the case with anything that has such potential for reward, it can also sometimes be a difficult and stressful experience.

There is no way to avoid the fact that going self-employed will take hard work and will throw up some unforeseen issues along the way. What you can do however, is make sure that you complete the following five crucial tasks when setting up a business, all of which will help to limit, and even sidestep, some of the potential problems that may arise down the road.

1. Register with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC)

It can’t be stressed strongly enough how important it is to make sure that when you set up your own business, you register with HMRC. If you do not correctly register your enterprise with HMRC, whether you are planning to be a sole trader or Limited Company, then you may face a fine of up to 100% of the tax owed on top of having to actually pay the actual tax bill. That is not a fine that will be easy to pay!

Registration of your business is still necessary if you begin your operations on a part time or casual basis. You can find more information about registering your business on HMRC’s website.

2. Get the word out ASAP

One of the biggest challenges as a newly established self-employed tradesman or start up small enterprise is that of getting your name out there and building up a base of potential customers. For that reason, one of the first things you should do starting out is to list your company with as many trade sites as possible, for example MyHammer and Rated People, to make sure that you are both visible and contactable for potential customers who may wish to use your services.

Make sure that all your friends and family know what you are up to so that they can spread the word and make sure that you look at actively marketing your services within your local community.

3. Get the right equipment

It may be true that a bad workman always blames his tools, but it is an unprofessional workman who doesn’t ensure that he has the right tools for the job. Before you even consider going on a job and providing your service to customers, you must be certain that you have all the equipment that you need and that it is fit for purpose. This includes any personal protective equipment (PPE) that may be appropriate for your line of work.

4. Research the going rate

If you want to elbow your way into an established market then you need to know what to charge to attract customers to your business. The only way to find this out is by finding out what other firms are already charging for the same kinds of services that you are going to offer. That doesn’t mean undercutting them but you need to be somewhere in line with what they are charging to remain competitive

5.Find the best suppliers

When you’re in a jam and need a part or some supplies quickly, then you need to have reliable and trustworthy suppliers that you can turn to. Sometimes you can only find out if a supplier is one you can trust by working with them, but you can go a long way to finding the right suppliers through background research and talking to their current customers.